Crowle Moor

A morning trip to Crowle Moor, a Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, part of the Humberhead Peatlands National Nature Reserve. We got into an almost impassable path with the car following a map in search of the southern car park, but had to turn round. The sun made an early appearance and many invertebrates came out with it, including Scorpion Flies, Sawflies, hoverflies, dragonflies, of which we had three species (including, Common Blue, Azure and Large Red Damselfly, the last was a first for me), a Peacocks and a Red Admiral.
 We walked around the triangular patch of heathland surrounded by birch woodland at the south part of the reserve (above). The heath is grazed by Hebridean sheep, which showed much interest in our arrival.
The weather was much more changeable than forecasted, and we had a couple of light showers. The first ended with the distant call of a Cuckoo. As we carried on we heard the purr of a Turtle Dove from a thickly wooded area in the NW corner of the reserve. He called repeatedly but we were unable to locate him. Tree Pipits were also in song.
 We returned to the car park and took another path. A Garden Warbler uttered its alarm call, reminiscent of a Red-legged partridge song, and then showed briefly. We saw Whitethroat, Pied Wagtail and two Great Spotted Woodpeckers. A Turtle dove crossed the field in flight, putting a nice end to the trip.

This was quite a large adult male of a jumping spider, probably Salticus scenicus.

Red-headed Cardinal Beetle, Pyrochroa serraticornis

Male Azure Damselfly.

Green Nettle Beetle, Phyllobius sp.

Nomada sp.

Large red damselfly

Tenthredo mesomela, a sawfly.

Male longhorn moth, Nemophora degeerella

One of the Hebridean sheep had impressive horns.

A female wolf spider carrying her egg sac, possibly Pardosa lugubris.

Female Large Red Damselfly. 

Male Scorpion Fly, Panorpa sp. with prey.

Garden tiger moth, Arctia caja

Ommatoiulus sabulosus, the Striped Millipede

More information

Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust page.